With the rapid development and the expanded applications of many products from high-tech industries, such as computer and information industries, the currently available computer devices now have constantly increasing data processing speed. Presently, the electronic elements for use in computer devices are gradually miniaturized, and more integrated circuits (ICs) can be provided within one unit area than before. As a result, the heat produced by the internal electronic elements per unit area also increased. The large quantity of heat produced by the electronic elements must be timely removed from the computer devices to avoid damaged electronic elements and failed computer devices.
To lower the working temperature of the heat-producing electronic elements, a water-cooling device has been introduced into the market. The water-cooling device includes a water-cooling radiator, which is connected to a pump and a water block via two tubes. The pump drives a water-cooling liquid, or a working fluid, to flow to the water-cooling radiator, so that heat carried by the water-cooling liquid is transferred to and dissipated from the water-cooling radiator into ambient environment. The pump drives the water-cooling liquid to continuously circulate between the water-cooling radiator and the water block to enable quick removal of heat from the heat-producing electronic elements. FIG. 1 shows a conventional water-cooling radiator 1, which is mainly assembled from three independent parts, namely, a plurality of serpentine radiating fins 11, a plurality of flat pipes 12 and two side water tanks 13. The serpentine radiating fins 11 are arranged between any two adjacent flat pipes 12 and are connected at outer sides of all turning points thereof to outer surfaces of corresponding flat pipes 12 by way of soldering to form a subassembly. Therefore, the flat pipes 12 are in only point contact with the serpentine radiating fines 11. The two side water tanks 13 are also soldered to two opposite sides of the subassembly of the radiating fins 11 and the flat pipes 12, so that the two side water tanks 43 are connected to the radiating fins 11 and the flat pipes 12 to form the water-cooling radiator 1. One of the two side water tanks 13 is provided with a water inlet 131 and a water outlet 132. The above mentioned two tubes (not shown) are respectively connected at one end to the water inlet 131 and the water outlet 132 on the water-cooling radiator 1.
The conventional water-cooling radiator 1 achieves the heat-dissipation effect because the heat carried by the working fluid flowing through the flat pipes 12 is transferred to the radiating fins 11, from where the heat is radiated into ambient environment. However, the conventional water-cooling radiator 1 has a problem of poor efficiency of heat transfer from the working fluid to the radiating fins 11. This is because the radiating fins 11 and the flat tubes 12 are two independent parts. While the radiating fins 11 are connected to the flat pipes 12 by soldering, the radiating fins 11 are not an integral part of the flat pipes 12. Therefore, thermal resistance occurs when the heat carried by the working fluid is transferred from the flat pipes 12 to the radiating fins 11 to cause lowered heat transfer efficiency, which in turn results in lowered cooling performance or lowered heat exchange efficiency of the whole water-cooling radiator 1. Further, since the serpentine radiating fins 11 are soldered at the outer sides of the turning points thereof to the outer surfaces of the flat pipes 12, the radiating fins 11 respectively have a structurally relatively weak middle section 111, which tends to become damaged or deformed when being subjected to an external force. Further, the effect of heat transfer from the flat pipes 12 to the radiating fins 11 is also relatively poor.
Moreover, since the conventional water-cooling radiator 1 is assembled from three independent parts, it not only involves complicated assembling processes that require considerably high time and labor cost, but also has the risk of leakage.